EPFL Electrical And Micro Engineering

🚨 An algorithm for better detection of underground objects Researchers from the Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab, led by Farhad Rachidi, in collaboration with HEIG-VD, have published a new #algorithm to improve the detection and localization of buried objects using ground-penetrating #radar, with particular relevance for #landmine detection. The study was led by Hamidreza Karami as first author. ⚠️ Locating landmines safely and accurately remains a major humanitarian challenge, especially because many mines are shallowly buried, made partly of plastic, or hidden by strong reflections from the ground surface. These effects can make conventional radar images difficult to interpret. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is already used in humanitarian demining, but its performance is often limited by surface reflections, clutter, and the usual trade-off between depth of penetration and image resolution. 💡 Now, the team has developed a high-resolution signal-processing technique that can be used directly with conventional radar systems and does not require additional hardware. By producing clearer and sharper images than standard approaches, the method improves the ability to distinguish buried objects that are close to the surface, which is especially important for antipersonnel landmines. Another important advantage is that the technique also enables the detection of more deeply buried objects by using lower-frequency signals, which penetrate further into the ground while still preserving spatial resolution. ✅ The method was validated through computer simulations, laboratory measurements, and field experiments in Switzerland, including tests with landmines and other buried objects. The results show that the technique can improve localization accuracy and make underground imaging more reliable, which could help increase the safety, speed, and effectiveness of future demining operations. 🔗 Read the full paper, now published in Nature Scientific Reports: https://lnkd.in/euFwpJSv EPFL | EPFL Electrical And Micro Engineering | #imaging | #signalprocessing | #demining Image: Field tests in ABC Zentrum center in Spiez. Comparison between conventional GPR (left) and the proposed algorithm (right).

🎉 Congratulations to Quentin De Menech on the successful defense of his PhD thesis, “𝐴𝑛 𝐴𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝐷𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐 𝐸𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑈𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝐼𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒.” Conducted at the Center for Artificial Muscles (CAM) at EPFL under the supervision of Prof. Yves Perriard and Dr. Yoan Civet, his research introduces an innovative soft-actuator–based artificial urinary sphincter, with a particular focus on addressing the specific needs of women affected by urinary incontinence. By combining biomechanics, soft robotics, and advanced dielectric elastomer technologies, this work contributes to the development of next-generation implantable medical devices, aiming to improve performance, adaptability, and patient quality of life. We wish him continued success in his future endeavors at the interface of biomedical engineering and medical innovation. 🚀

🤖 A new framework developed by EPFL researchers makes it possible to teach a skill to #robots with different mechanical designs, allowing them to carry out the same task safely without rewriting code for each. Dubbed Kinematic Intelligence, the method takes a human-demonstrated task, mathematically converts it into a general movement strategy, and then adapts it so that different robots can perform it based on their physical design. “Our goal is to remove the need for technical expertise while still ensuring safe and reliable operation," the researchers say. "The user brings the idea and the desired behavior, and the robot should take care of the rest.” Read more about this work, now published in Science Robotics 🔗 https://lnkd.in/edCyJ7N4 Aude G. Billard | Sthithpragya Gupta | Durgesh Salunkhe | EPFL Robotics | EPFL Electrical And Micro Engineering | #kinematics | #learning | #robot

🎉 Congratulations to Ying Cao on the successful defense of her PhD thesis “𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑑𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠” conducted at the EPFL Adaptive Systems Laboratory (ASL) under the supervision of Prof. Ali H. Sayed. 🔎 This thesis provides rigorous theoretical guarantees for the optimization dynamics and adversarial robustness of distributed learning. In standard settings, we highlight a fundamental trade-off between minima flatness and optimization, and show that decentralized strategies demonstrate superior accuracy because they strike a more favorable balance in this trade-off compared to centralized baselines. In adversarial environments, we establish the formal study of distributed adversarial robustness, demonstrating the convergence of distributed adversarial training algorithms and highlighting that decentralized strategies maintain this same inherent bias toward flatter, more robust models. A significant milestone achieved 👏 — all the best for what comes next 🚀

🎉 Congratulations to Hossein Taji on the successful defense of his PhD thesis “𝑀𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖-𝑂𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐸𝑑𝑔𝑒𝐴𝐼 𝑜𝑛 𝐻𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑆𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑠” conducted at the ESL - Embedded Systems Lab under the supervision of Prof. David Atienza and Prof. José Miranda. 🔎 His research explored a holistic management strategy for enabling complex, reliable, and efficient AI on resource-constrained heterogeneous platforms. A significant milestone achieved 👏 — all the best for what comes next 🚀

We are proud to share that David Atienza, head of the ESL - Embedded Systems Lab, has been elected to the Engineering Section of Academia Europaea! Founded in 1988, Academia Europaea aims to advance excellence in scholarship in the humanities; law; the economic, social, and political sciences; mathematics; medicine; and all branches of natural and technological sciences. Membership is granted following a highly competitive recommendation and peer-review process. David, who is also EPFL's Associate Vice President for Centers and Platforms, is one of 275 scholars invited to accept membership by the Academy on March 26th. 👏 Congratulations! 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eTAwpVPg EPFL | EPFL Electrical And Micro Engineering | Office Academia Europaea